Learn all the Body Parts in Chinese with Audio & Example Sentences

The whole body in Chinese is 身体 (shēntǐ), and the core body parts are 头 (tóu, head), 脸 (liǎn, face), 手 (shǒu, hand), 胳膊 (gēbo, arm), 腿 (tuǐ, leg) and 脚 (jiǎo, foot). To say a body part hurts, use the pattern 我 + body part + 疼 (téng), as in 我头疼 (wǒ tóu téng), “I have a headache”.

Identifying and naming your body parts in Chinese can come in handy when seeing the doctor, playing sports, going clothes shopping, and much more!

Body words also turn up early in HSK vocabulary lists, so once you’ve finished here, keep building with our 500+ essential Chinese vocabulary list.

So with that being said, let’s learn how to talk about body parts in Chinese.

We’ll tell you how to say everything from head 头 (tóu) to toe 脚趾 (jiǎo zhǐ) and provide you with audio examples and downloadable graphics to help you practice.

Let’s get started!

Body Parts in Chinese || General Body 身体 (shēntǐ)

Body Parts in Chinese || Head and face – 头脸 (tóuliǎn)

Body Parts in Chinese || Upper Body 上半身 (shàngbànshēn)

Body Parts in Chinese || Hands 手 (shǒu)

Body Parts in Chinese || Internal organs – 脏腑 (zàngfǔ)

Body Parts in Chinese || Lower Body 下半身 (xiàbànshēn)

Body Parts in Chinese || How to Say What Hurts in Chinese

Body Parts in Chinese || Chinese Idioms with Body Parts

Body Parts in Chinese || FREE QUIZ

Body Parts in Chinese – General Body 身体 (shēntǐ)

The whole body in Chinese is called 身体 (shēntǐ), but what about the single parts of it?

Here are a few example sentences using these words:

💡 Notice that 身体 also means health, which is why 你身体好吗 is a caring question, not an anatomy quiz. In everyday speech 血 is often read xiě, as in 流血 (liú xiě, to bleed), while formal compounds such as 血液 and 血管 use xuè.

TIP💡 Look at 肌, 肚, 脖, 胸, 腿, 脚, 脸 and 肺 and you’ll spot the same component on the left: 月. Here it isn’t the moon at all but a squashed form of 肉 (ròu, flesh), so it’s a strong hint that a character has something to do with the body. You’ll find it at the bottom of 胃 and 背 too.

Body Parts in Chinese – Head and face – 头脸 (tóuliǎn)

Let’s start at the top. Here is the vocabulary you need for the head and the face, from 额头 (étóu, forehead) down to 下巴 (xiàba, chin). If you want to go further with cheeks, lashes and lips, our guide to facial features and makeup vocab picks up where this list stops.

You’ll often pair these words with an adjective, as in 你的眼睛很大 (nǐ de yǎnjīng hěn dà, your eyes are big).

To get the word order right every time, visit our Chinese Grammar Bank 💡

Here are some example sentences for you with some of those facial features.

💡 Three words worth adding to the list above: 脸 (liǎn) is the everyday word for face, 头发 (tóufa) is the hair on your head (毛 is body or animal hair), and 嘴巴 (zuǐba) is how most people say mouth in conversation, with 嘴 as the short form.

Body Parts in Chinese – Upper Body 上半身 (shàngbànshēn)

Now let’s talk about the upper body parts in Chinese: here below you’ll find a list of words that compose the trunk:

Now for some useful sentences with these upper body parts:

TIP💡 To say “my” with any body part, put 我的 (wǒ de) in front: 我的手 (wǒ de shǒu) is “my hand” and 我的腿 (wǒ de tuǐ) is “my leg”.

With your own body, people often drop 的 in casual speech, so you’ll also hear 我手很冷 (wǒ shǒu hěn lěng).

Everyday word or formal word?

Several body parts have two names: one you’ll hear at the dinner table and one you’ll read on a medical form.

胳膊 is what you’ll hear in daily conversation, especially in Beijing and other northern cities. 手臂 sounds more formal or written, and many speakers in southern cities use it in everyday speech too. Use 屁股 with friends and family, while 臀部 is the word a doctor or gym instructor would choose.

Body Parts in Chinese – Hands 手 (shǒu)

Hands play an important function in body language and sign language, so let’s be more specific and learn this wordlist of the parts of a hand:

Let’s put these words into some sentences you might actually use:

Measure words for body parts

In Chinese you can’t just say “one hand”. You need a measure word between the number and the body part, and the right one depends on its shape or whether it comes in a pair.

Complete Guide to Basic Chinese Grammar & Sentence Structures

Chinese grammar is NOT as hard as you think. In fact it’s a lot easier than many other languages. Here we introduce some key points and show you the way.

Body Parts in Chinese – Internal organs – 脏腑 (zàngfǔ)

Imagine seeing a doctor in China and not knowing the words of the internal organs.

Not so easy to get your point across without the usage of body language!

The internal organ vocabulary below will come in handy in exactly these situations. One more word you’ll want is 肾 (shèn, kidney), often said in full as 肾脏 (shènzàng).

💡 The heading word 脏腑 (zàngfǔ) comes from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). It groups the organs into the 五脏 (wǔzàng: heart, liver, spleen, lungs and kidneys) and the 六腑 (liùfǔ: gallbladder, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, bladder and the 三焦 sānjiāo, or “triple burner”).

You’ll hear these ideas at TCM clinics and pharmacies, so don’t be surprised if someone says you have too much 肝火 (gānhuǒ, “liver fire”) when you’re stressed or short-tempered.

… and some sentences with those words in action

75 Useful Academic Vocabulary 🎓 Let’s Go back to School in Chinese

Thinking of coming to learn Chinese? Good! As a present, we are getting you ahead of the rest with our hugely useful set of Chinese school vocabulary.

Body Parts in Chinese || Lower Body 下半身 (xiàbànshēn)

Finally, let’s work our way down through the lower body parts in Chinese:

And finally, some sentences to match:

How to Say What Hurts in Chinese // Body Part + 疼

Saying what hurts is where all that body parts vocabulary really pays off. The pattern is simple to build: 我 + body part + 疼 (téng). So 我头疼 (wǒ tóu téng) means “I have a headache”.

💡 疼 (téng) is the everyday spoken word, and you’ll hear it constantly in Beijing. 痛 (tòng) means the same thing but sounds a little more formal or written, which is why our organ example used 我的肚子很痛. Both 头疼 and 头痛 mean headache.

肚子 or 胃 for Stomach?

肚子 (dùzi) is your belly, the whole area you’d point to from the outside. 胃 (wèi) is the stomach organ itself.

If you’re not sure exactly where the pain is, 我肚子疼 is the safe choice. 我胃疼 tells a doctor the problem is higher up, usually linked to eating, like after one too many spicy hotpots in Chengdu.

At the Doctor or Pharmacy

For more phrases on describing symptoms and illnesses, head over to our health guide.

Chinese Idioms with Body Parts

Once you know the body, many Chinese idioms (成语 chéngyǔ) start to make sense. Here are five you’ll actually hear:

Want a new one every day? Try our Chinese Proverb of the Day tool.

Body Parts in Chinese || FREE QUIZ

Think you know your head from your hips or your elbows from your ears?

Well it’s time to put that to the test with our FREE Body Parts Quiz in Chinese…!

Time's up

Scored well? The fastest way to make these words stick is to use them every day.

When you study with LTL in cities like Beijing, Shanghai or Chengdu and live with a host family, you’ll be telling your host mum 我头疼 (wǒ tóu téng) and pointing at menus long before you realise you’re doing it.

Find your perfect Mandarin program

Fancy learning how to say the body parts of other languages? You’re in luck because we’ve also published a post on the body parts in Russian too. Check it out 😎

Body Parts in Chinese || FAQs

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